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6.5/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.5/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Goichi jiisan remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
Honestly, it depends on how much coffee you’ve had. If you’re looking for a brisk, plot-heavy ride, skip this entirely. You’ll be bored to tears within ten minutes.
But if you like movies that just sit there and breathe, you might find something special here. It feels like watching a The Birth of a Man but with way more dirt and fewer answers.
There’s a scene where the protagonist just fixes a fence. It goes on forever. I think I counted three separate shots of his hands just... shaking slightly while holding a nail. It’s painfully slow, but strangely hypnotic.
Most directors would have cut that down to three seconds. Here, you feel every second of his age in his movements.
I caught myself looking at my phone halfway through, but then I looked back up and saw the old man staring at a field. I put the phone down. It felt rude to look away.
This film shares a certain DNA with Skärgårdskavaljerer in how it treats its landscape as a living, breathing thing. It doesn't ask for your attention; it just kind of expects you to be there. 🙄
The dialogue is sparse, which is a mercy. When people do talk, it’s mostly just complaining about the rain or the harvest. It feels real in a way that modern scripts, which are always trying to sound witty or profound, rarely manage.
The ending is a bit of a shrug. Maybe it’s a commentary on the futility of life? Or maybe the crew just ran out of film. Either way, I didn't mind.
It’s not a masterpiece. It’s just a mood. And sometimes, that’s plenty. 🌾